Beef Tapa Recipe

I sat silently at the last row of hard plastic seats, flanked on both sides by strangers who spoke what sounded like Mandarin. I pulled out my boarding pass for my connecting flight and examined it under the dim, yellow lights.

China Airlines Flight CI0008.
Taipei to Los Angeles. September 7.

It hit me. It finally hit me. What I had been preparing for and looking forward to for months was now real. It was now unfolding.

For days, I was preoccupied with a flurry of sendoffs from family and friends. I met friends from work, friends from school, friends I had not seen for years. I was surrounded with family who wished me well, who teared up while wishing me well. I was showered with so much attention, so much affection. Then, suddenly, I was alone. I felt strangely alone while I waited in the crowded terminal, while I waited to board a plane that would take me to the biggest adventure of my life.

Fifteen years have slipped by since I came to America, since I was fresh off the boat, fresh off a China Airlines Boeing 747-400. I had two grand in hundred dollar bills, tied together by a rubber band and stowed surreptitiously in a pocket in my pants. I had a passport and a student visa. I had a suitcase packed with my best clothes. With family photographs and mementos. With Hallmark cards. With Tupperwares full of my mom’s chicken and pork adobo, and beef tapa [tah-pah], frozen so they would last the long trip.

I had dreams. I had plans. Finish graduate school and find a job. Start over. Start again. I didn’t think I would stay. But I did. I’m happy I did.

Beef Tapa Recipe, makes four servings

1 lb sirloin or ribeye steak
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Slice beef across the grain into 1/4-inch thick strips. Whisk together salt, sugar, and freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl. Rub beef with salt and crushed garlic and refrigerate overnight in a sealed container.

Before cooking let steaks rest at room temperature for over an hour. Fry steaks in oil in a pan over medium to high heat until done, turning only once to give the steaks a good sear. Serve with sinangag and fried eggs.

Tapa is so simple to make so splurge with the best cut of grass-fed beef you can find. It can be made ahead of time and frozen in Ziploc bags. Make sure to let the meat completely thaw and rest at room temperature before frying.

Buco pie

Buko Pie

Ingredients :

Crust

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup margarine or butter, cut into thin slices
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 5-6 tbsp. cold water
• eggwash

Filling

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup buco water/juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups grated buco (young coconut meat)

(Cooking Conversions)

Cooking Procedures :

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Prepare an 8-inch pie plate.

Filling
(a) Combine sugar and cornstarch in asaucepan. Add evaporated milk and bucowater. Cook over medium heat until thickened.

(b) Add vanilla and grated buco meat. Cook for another 5 minutes and then set aside to cool.
Crust

(a)Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter (if using) and shortening until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

(b)Add a tablespoon of water one at a time. Mix with a fork until the dough is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl.

(c) Form into two balls, one of which should be bigger than the other.

(d) Roll out the bigger dough to form a 9-inch circle that is about 1/4-inch thick. Fit this dough into the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Filled up with the buco mixture filling. Set aside.
2.Roll out the smaller dough into a circle, big enough to cover the top of the pie. To seal the sides of the pie, pinch the top and bottom crusts together.

3. Using a knife or fork, prick holes on the top crust so that steam can escape the pie while baking. Brush the top crust with eggwash.

4. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool before slicing.

Ginataang Kuhol

Ginataang Kuhol

Instructions

1. Soak kuhol in water for 2-3 hours. Wash and drain. Break tail-end of snails (simply by tapping with the handle of a knife). Wash again and drain. Set aside.
2. In a pan, put in thin cream, add garlic, ginger, onion, andgreen pepper. Bring to a boil. Add snail and kangkong leaves and stalks. Season with salt and vetsin. When kangkong is half cooked, add thick cream. Simmer for 10 minutes. Kalabasa flowers and young leaves are a good substitute to kangkong.

Ingredients

• 20-30 kuhol or snails
• 2 coconuts, grated, extract
• 1 cup thick cream (1st Extract)
• 2 cups thin cream (2nd Extract)
• 3-4 green, long pepper
• 1 med. sized onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp minced ginger
• 2 cups kangkong leaves & stalks
• 1 tsp vetsin
• salt to taste

Adobong Bayawak

Adobong Bayawak 

• How to make it
  Mix bayawak, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, laurel and pepper and let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes.
  Add half cup water and bring to boil
  Cover and simmer with occassional stirring until water dries up
  Add oil and stir fry for 5 minutes
  Serve and enjoy with any liquor or beer you desire.

 Ingredients:

• 1 kg Bayawak (Monitor Lizzard from the Philippines) cubed into bite size piecesshopping list
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed shopping list
• 3 Tbsp white vinegar shopping list
• 5 Tbsp soy sauce shopping list
• 1 tsp salt shopping list
• 1 dahon ng laurel (bay leaf) shopping list
• 1 tsp ground black pepper shopping list
• 1 cup water shopping list
• 3 Tbsp oil

Fried Frog

Fried Frog

Why eat a frog? Often the legs are compared with the chicken, a more accurate comparison would be along the line between chicken and a business, meaty fish. Frog legs are particularly polished and tender pastry such as fillet of cod, but the flavor of amphibians has the attributes of meat from Garnier. Best of all, the purchase of frogs offers all the additional pleasure of stinging throughout the body and appendages.




Directions:
Prepare legs by cutting off backbone (if any remains) with a pair of poultry shears. Cut legs in two where they join. If they are fresh, parboil 3 minutes in acidulated water (1 portion lemon juice to 4 portions water), drain and pat dry, Soak for 1 hour in the buttermilk.

Mix flour with seasonings in a paper bag, add legs, and shake to coat them. Heat lard or oil until hot but not smoking, 375 degrees F, and fry legs a few at a time until golden brown, 2 or 3 minutes. Fry parsley about 1 minute, drain on paper towels, and serve with the frog legs and lemon quarters.

Ingredients:

• 16 small pairs frog legs
• OR
• 8 large pairs frog legs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup corn flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Lard or oil (for frying)
• 1 bunch parsley, washed and dried
• 2 lemons, quartered

Balot

Balot
  

Balut is a popular Filipino street snack and is essentially a duck egg with a fetus inside, typically between seventeen to twenty days in gestation. In the Philippines balut is so popular that it is equivalent to what the hot dog is in the U.S. There are balut vendors who push around carts full of fetal treats and bark their wares in a sing-song chant of “baluuuut, baluuuut!” Balut is also a popularaphrodisiac for men. But even with the good vibes and positive spin surrounding balut, the stigma attached to eating it overshadows all the warm and fuzzy aspects of this very Deep End Dining dish.

Instructions for eating balut:
1. Boil water gently in a pot, and put the balut in it for a few minutes.
2. Untwist the salt and put it in a dish. (A dipping dish, the kind used for soy sauce or patis, works very well.)
3. Hold the balut upright and, with the underside of a spoon, make a crack at the top of the egg.
4. Chip away pieces of eggshell with your finger until you have a hole about the diameterof a finger. (This could be bigger, it depends.)
5. Sometimes you’ll see some kind of gauzy membrane. Pierce it.
6. You can peek inside the balut now and see broth. Is this albumen? (I always preferred to think of it as amniotic fluid.)
7. Tip the egg to your mouth and suck out the amniotic fluid.
8. Continue removing the eggshell. Depending on how you cracked it open, you may then see an undifferentiated mass of stuff that feels like slightly runny, soft-boiled egg in texture. Dip the stuff in the salt and eat it.
9. Or you may encounter a hard, spherical section that looks like a seed. Throw that away. (My godmother swears that it’s all calcium and good for you, but it’s tasteless and hard for me.)
10. Or you may finally get to the jackpot: the duck fetus. You may pick it up by the head — at which point the body unrolls from its fetal position and its little legs dangle — dip it into the salt, and pop it into your mouth.
11. Wash down with a cold bottle of San Miguel beer. (I think I may have been drinking it with milk when I was in elementary school — now that sounds disgusting. Balut and milk…)
the best time to eat balut is when you get drunk. you can eat as much as you want. eating a balut comes with a warning. when you have eaten more than 3 balut for just one night rest assured you’ll be in your intimate and pleasurable moment.

Kamaro

Adobong Kamaro

Instructions

1. Clean camaro, remove wings, feet and head. Set aside. Peel and crush garlic, peel and slice onions. Wash and slice tomatoes set aside.
2. In a clean container, combine clean camaro, vinegar, ground black pepper, salt and 25 g garlic, set aside.
3. Saute 25 g garlic until golden brown. Add onions and cook until wilted. Add sliced tomatoes and cook until mushy. Stir.
4. Add marinated camaro. Simmer for 30 seconds. Reduce fire. Stir.
5. Continue simmering until sauce dries up. Serve.

Ingredients

• 1 c camaro cleaned
• 1/2 cooking oil
• 50 g garlic crushed
• 150 g onion sliced
• 5 pc tomato sliced
• 1/4 c vinegar
• 1/4 tsp whole black pepper ground
• 1 tsp salt

Serious gourmands know the best cooks come from Pampanga. So do kamaro, these mole crickets they cook into a delicious appetizer.

What makes this delicacy special? Well if catching these bugs is tough, so is cooking them. Legs and wings must be removed, then the body is boiled in vinegar and garlic. It's then sautéed in oil, onion and chopped tomatoes until chocolate brown. 

These bite-size appetizers are crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. Sample Kamaru at Everybody’s Café, an authentic Pampango dining institution for many decades now. 

Kare-kare

Kare-kare

This stew of oxtail has the most delicious sauce made from ground toasted rice and crushed peanuts. Banana blossom, eggplants and string beans add more interesting textures, to make it a complete meal on its own.

Kare-kare Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 1/2 lbs Pork or Beef hocks or Ox tail ,cut into 2" lengths ( I used beef hocks)
• 6 tbsp peanut butter 
• 1 bundle sitaw or long beans (cut 3" length)
• 2 bundles bokchoy
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
• 1 medium onion (sliced)
• 1 tsp achuete powder for coloring 
• 1 medium eggplant (cut into 6 pieces)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• bagoong or shrimp paste  
• HOW TO COOK KARE-KARE:
  
  • Boil the pork hocks until soft. Set aside. Reserve the broth. 
  • In a wok, saute garlic and onion. 
  • Add pork hocks and fish sauce. Cook for few minutes.  
  • Add 2 1/2 cups of the pork/beef broth, salt, achuete and peanut butter. Simmer for 5 mins. 
  • Add the vegetables and cook until vegetables are tender. Stir occasionally. 
  • Season with salt to taste.
  • Serve with bagoong or shrimp paste.
  
  

Arroz Caldo

ARROZ CALDO-is a type of congee. It has been a favorite Filipino snack and is best eaten with tokwat baboy and boiled. You might be familiar with lugaw and goto.

These congee closely similar to one another, but the distinguishing ingredient of arroz caldo is the use of chicken, while goto usually requires the use of tripe, beef, and innards. Lugaw, on the other hand, is as plain as it can get.This is often thought to be a Spanish dish because of its name.

This dish is actually a Chinese Congee that was adapted to the tastes of the Spanish colonial settlers who patronized Chinese restaurants in the Philippines.

NUMBER OF SERVINGS: 3-5

ARROZ CALDO INGREDIENTS:’

• 300 Grams chicken (any parts), cut into serving pieces
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 head garlic minced
• 2 knobs ginger, julienned
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup uncooked malagkit rice
• 10 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon msg (optional)
• 1 piece chicken cube
• 3 tablespoon safflower(kasubha)
• 2 stalks onions leaks chopped (for topping)
• 2 boiled eggs (for toppings)
• calamansi

COOKING PROCEDURES:

1. In a cokking pot, heat the cooking oil then saute the garlic, onion, and ginger
2. Put-in the chicken, salt, msg, black ground pepper, chicken cube and cook until outer layer color turns golden brown
3. Add the uncooked malagkit rice then mix.
4. Pour-in the water and bring to a boil.
5. Stir constantly and simmer until the rice is fully cooked (about 30 to 40 minutes) under medium heat.
6. Add the safflower for additional color and aroma. Simmer for another 5 minutes
7. Serve with hard boiled egg on the top, toasted garlic, onion leaks and calamansi. Share and Enjoy!

Pancit Palabok

Pancit Palabok

INGREDIENTS: 1 pack Rice sticks (Bihon noodles) For the Sauce: 1/2 to 3/4 lb ground pork  3 cups pork broth + 1/4 cup for cornstarch + 1/4 cup for atsuete 1 piece shrimp cube 4 tbsp of cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup pork broth 1 tbsp anatto powder (atsuete) dissolved in 1/4 cup pork broth 3 cloves garlic  1 small onion chopped 3 tbsp fish sauce 2 tbsp cooking oil                                  For the Toppings: cooked shrimps (shelled)    smoked fish (Tinapa) flakes pork chicharon (grounded) hard boiled eggs  fried minced garlic spring onions lemon or calamansi extrac

HOW TO COOK PALABOK Sauce: Heat cooking oil in a saucepan and saute garlic and onion. Add the ground pork and cook for 5 minutes or until the pork turns brown. Add the pork broth (3 cups) and the dissolved annato (atsuete) Let it boil. Add a piece of shrimp cube and fish sauce then add the dissolved cornstarch. Cook until sauce becomes thick.  Set aside. Rice Sticks / Bihon Noodles Place the noodles in a strainer and submerge in boiling water for about 2 minutes or until the noodles are cooked.  Drain the noodles and transfer to a serving plate. Pour the palabok sauce and garnish with the toppings. Squeeze some lemon or calamansi. Serve hot and Enjoy!